The Salafist Nour Party is striving to stay ahead of the political game. It helped remove the Muslim Brotherhood from the political scene, endorsed the 30 June 2013 roadmap, and is eager to run for parliament despite the faltering fortunes of Islamist groups and a spate of court cases challenging its own legality. It has also found friends in unlikely places. A breakaway group from the Coptic Chruch, known as Copts 38, has made common cause with the Nour Party and has agreed to include some members on the Nour Party's candidate list. Nour may be ideologically recalcitrant but it is a fast learner. When the Egyptian constitution and subsequent law made it incumbent on all parties to include women and Copts on their candidate lists, it complied. For more than a year now the Nour Party has regularly been forced to swallow its pride. It said nothing when its leaders were prevented from preaching from mosque pulpits, now completely under the control of the Ministry of Awqaf. When the parliamentary election law stipulated the inclusion of women and Copts on lists the Salafis started the search for partners despite the fact that Salafi preachers, including key figures in the Nour Party, ban their followers from congratulating Christians on their feasts, considering the gesture to be too compromising to their beliefs. Hardly surprising, then, that when Copts 38 decided to run on Nour lists, eyebrows were raised on both sides of the divide. Both the Salafis and the breakaway Copts had to explain themselves. Copts 38 is known for its long-running dispute with the church over personal status bylaws which preclude divorce except in cases of adultery. The group took its name from the bylaws approved in 1938 by the community council, or maglis milli, which allowed divorce on grounds of abuse or neglect. The synod of Coptic Orthodox Church abrogated the bylaws in 1942, making it harder for married Copts to divorce. Some Copts believe that in associating with the Nour Party the breakaway group is trying to pay the church back for its refusal to discuss the issue of divorce. But how can the Salafis, who refuse to congratulate Christians on their feasts as a matter of principle, justify the sudden display of openness? Their leaders concede that they had no other choice: no Copts, no lists. Sheikh Ahmad Al-Shahhat, a member of the Nour Party's Higher Council, says the inclusion of women and Christians is nawazel — afflictions that the party needed to make room for. In remarks published on a Salafist website, Al-Shahhat notes that the party has no choice but to comply with the new regulations, which are based on Article 244 of the 2013 constitution. The Nour Party, notes Al-Shahhat, is the only political party on the Egyptian scene calling for sharia. If it withdraws now it will mark the end of political Islam. Armed with a profound knowledge of sharia and the ability to argue its case, Nour has a key position in public life and must not abandon it, he argued. The Nour Party believes in a three-pronged process of reform that focuses on man, society, and government. The reform of the state cannot take place unless the party maintains an active role in political life, promoting trust and good relations with those in power. And that, concludes Al-Shahhat, means that withdrawing from political life “after the gains the Nour Party has made over the last four years is not an option.” The founder of Copts 38, Nader Al-Sirafi, sees nothing wrong in cooperating with a radical Islamist party, even one that, to put it mildly, has acted unsympathetically towards Christians in the past. He revealed that 24 Coptic candidates will stand on Nour Party lists and that many Copts have already joined Nour. Speaking to journalists, Al-Sirafi declined to name the candidates, saying that Nour leaders will announce their names “in due course.” Nour's principles do not preclude cooperation between Muslims and Christians, he insists. Copts 38 has “no secret or personal goals for joining the party but we found that Nour is the one party on the scene most committed to the roadmap, the most popular party, and the closest to Christians.” According to Al-Sirafi, coordination with the Nour Party began when Copts 38 “expressed its admiration for the party,” a position which Nour reciprocated by promising to add Copts 38 to its lists. Talaat Marzouk, the Nour Party's assistant head of legal affairs, says that, contrary to claims by its opponents, the party is not religious. His view seems to be shared by advisors to the Higher Administrative Court who have recommended the dismissal of a lawsuit calling for the disbanding of the party. Case 58/32784 was filed by Gamal Ismail on the grounds that the constitution bans the formation of religious parties. Sheikh Adel Nasser, official spokesman of the Salafist Calling, of which the Nour Party is the political arm, defended Nour's decision to allow Copts to run on its lists. The party needs to comply with the law, he notes, and the move is not one that contravenes sharia. Many Coptic activists see Copts 38's decision to join forces with the Nour Party in the upcoming elections as “cynical”, “opportunistic”, “self-serving”, and “vindictive”. Coptic lawyer Mamdouh Ramzi says those running on Nour's lists “lack credentials” and have a single aim, to “exact revenge against the church over the issue of personal status regulations.” Ramzi points out that senior Salafist figures, including Yasser Borhami and Abdel-Moneim Al-Shahhat, continue to refer to Christians as infidels. Andrawes Oweida, former coordinator of the Maspero Youth Union, denounces those Copts who have joined Nour as publicity seekers intent on bringing their differences with the church into the public domain at any cost. Nader Sobhi Suleiman, founder of the Christian Youths Movement, calls Salafist-Coptic cooperation a “dirty game”. “It is not a dilemma, but a disaster,” he says.
